Battery-powered vehicles have been known for many years, and many different types, varieties and designs have been developed. One type of vehicle that may be battery powered is an aircraft, and in particular, a remote-controlled airplane. It is known to house battery packs in the fuselage of such an airplane; however, such battery packs add considerable weight to the airplane without providing any additional structural integrity, which could thereby be used to reduce the weight of structural components. In one embodiment, the present invention relates to the implementation of structurally integrated commercially off-the-shelf battery cells, or specially designed battery cells into structural components of a remote controlled aircraft. Such a structural system, which may be referred to as battery-structure, may improve vehicle performance or utility that results from synergistic interaction or cooperative action of the otherwise separate battery and structural constituents.
The battery-structure may be integrated into the wings and/or tail section of a battery powered aircraft and may account for up to half of its weight, and may include hybrid battery-structure systems having both high energy battery-structure and high power battery-structure that together may have a profound impact on improving battery-structure energy efficiency and performance. Designs employed may provide greater energy capacity, lighter weight, improved space utilization, and improved weight distribution to provide longer flights, greater range, small size, larger payload volume capacity, and improved flight stability or flight handling characteristics.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide battery-structures that improve the performance of the component or system in which they are used. In particular, an object of the invention is to provide battery-structures that can be used in ground, air, or space vehicles and which offer improvement in bending stiffness, reduction in weight, reduction in occupied space, improvement in weight distribution, and/or increase in payload stowage volume over what would otherwise occur if the battery and structure constituents were separate and not integrated.